Radical changes made late to Billie Jean King Cup Finals ahead of title defense for Leylah Fernandez's Canada

The Billie Jean King Cup will adopt a new format effective immediately, as countries that have recently qualified for the Finals in November will have to play a knockout tie instead of a round-robin.

The top fours seeds, Canada, Italy, Australia and Czechia, will receive automatic byes into the quarter-finals. However, the rest of the teams will be involved in a knockout tie in order to qualify for the event. In previous editions, the 12 countries in the Finals were split into four groups of three.

In past editions, the format play saw a top seed grouped with three other teams as they all fought for semifinal qualification. However, this new format will see lower-seeded teams facing elimination from their very first tie. Defending champions Canada, spearheaded by Leylah Fernandez, will have an automatic path to the quarterfinals, being one of the four seeded teams.

Additionally, the BJK Cup Finals have also been pushed back a week in the tennis calendar and will take place from November 12-20, 2024. Therefore, the women’s ‘World Cup of tennis’ will overlap with the men’s equivalent as the Davis Cup Finals are scheduled for November 19-24, 2024. This will allow players who may be competing at the year-ending WTA Finals to have a week of rest before representing their countries at the BJK Cup.